Prep Baseball: Christian Life wins 1st NAC title; regionals next

Saturday

May 17, 2014 at 10:00 AM

By Matt TrowbridgeRockford Register Star

ROCKFORD — First place.

For the first time.

“I’ve never had that experience before,” Christian Life cleanup hitter Isaiah Jones said of the Eagles winning the first conference baseball title in school history. “It just felt so good to be No. 1. I thought we’d be up there this year, but I didn’t expect to be No. 1 in the conference.”

Now the Eagles are aiming to be No. 1 again. They’ve never won a regional, but think they can compete with No. 1 seed Freeport Aquin and No. 2 Dakota at this week’s Aquin Class 1A Regional.

“This is the start of something huge,” said No. 1 pitcher Niko Sanchez, the team’s only senior. “I think this team has won only one regional game ever, but we won conference for the first time, so let’s keep moving on.”

Christian Life (12-8, 8-2) beat out league power Elgin Westminster Christian, the 2010 1A state champion, to win this year’s Northeastern Athletic Conference title.

The Eagles are small as well as young, with only 12 players, three of whom had never played organized baseball before.

Paul’s oldest son, Niko, has five wins, 43 strikeouts and a 3.71 ERA and bats .391. His sophomore son, Eli, leads the team in hitting (.457) and is the No. 3 pitcher when he isn’t catching.

Niko says throwing to Eli makes pitching easier.

“It’s just easy this way,” he said. “My dad grew up playing pitcher, so he taught me how to pitch. And Eli being the catcher made it easy too. We’d always practice, always be out there in the backyard hitting and throwing growing up.

“My freshman and sophomore years, we had good catchers, but none that were super-great. When my junior year hit and Eli was the catcher, I could finally snap my curveball. I could throw it in the dirt without it rolling to the backstop.”

Christian Life is solid everywhere on defense.

“Knowing you have fielders you can depend on is huge,” Niko Sanchez said. “You don’t have to nitpick. You can just concentrate on throwing strikes.”

The Eagles can win by outscoring teams (beating Westminster 14-13) or by shutting them out (Eli threw a 5-0 win over Class 2A Pecatonica/Durand in their last game before regionals). Nate Whitaker is the Eagles’ No. 2 pitcher and third-leading hitter with a .400 batting average. Cameron Cassaro is another top hitter at .357.

The Eagles, the only Rockford-area baseball team in the NAC, have flown under the radar all year. Now is their chance to make some noise.

For the first time.

“Winning conference gets our name out there and shows people we’re not just some small school, that we can actually accomplish some things,” said Jones, who is batting .453.

Eli Sanchez says the Eagles are ready for regionals. They’ve been ready all year.

“We have to have intensity to do something,” Eli said. “Without it, we’re just another team, but with intensity, we can go pretty far.”

They’ve already made school history.

“Being that starter, you set a trend, which makes it more special,” Niko Sanchez said. “You will always be a part of that. Every player wants to be that guy who started something for his team.”